Magnetic anisotropies of MBE-grown fcc Co(110)-films on Cu(110) single crystal substrates have been determined by using Brillouin light scattering(BLS) and have been correlated with the structural properties determined by low energy electron diffraction (LEED) and scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). Three regimes of film growth and associated anisotropy behavior are identified: coherent growth in the Co film thickness regime of up to 13 Å, in-plane anisotropic strain relaxation between 13 Å and about 50 Å and inplane isotropic strain relaxation above 50 Å. The structural origin of the transition between anisotropic and isotropic strain relaxation was studied using STM. In the regime of anisotropic strain relaxation long Co stripes with a preferential [ 110 ]-orientation are observed, which in the isotropic strain relaxation regime are interrupted in the perpendicular in-plane direction to form isotropic islands. In the Co film thickness regime below 50 Å an unexpected suppression of the magnetocrystalline anisotropy contribution is observed. A model calculation based on a crystal field formalism and discussed within the context of band theory, which explicitly takes tetragonal misfit strains into account, reproduces the experimentally observed anomalies despite the fact that the thick Co films are quite rough.

Absract: We report on measurements of the two-dimensional intensity distribtion of linear and non-linear spin wave excitations in a LuBiFeO film. The spin wave intensity was detected with a high-resolution Brillouinlight scatteringspectroscopy setup. The observed snake-like structure of the spin wave intensity distribution is understood as a mode beating between modes with different lateral spin wave intensity distributions. The theoretical treatment of the linear regime is performed analytically, whereas the propagation of non-linear spin waves is simulated by a numerical solution of a non-linear Schrödinger equation with suitable boundary conditions.

The first observation of self-focusing of dipolar spin waves in garnet film media is reported. In particular, we show that the quasi-stationary diffraction of a finite-aperture spin wave beam in a focusing medium leads to the concentration of the wave power in one focal point rather than along a certain line (channel). The obtained results demonstrate the wide applicability of non-linear spin wave media to study non-linear wave phenomena using an advanced combined microwave-Brillouin light scattering technique for a two-dimensional mapping of the spin wave amplitudes.

We report on Brillouin light scattering investigations of the elastic properties in Co/Ni superlattices which exhibit localized electronic eigenstates near the Fermi level causing an oscillation of the resistivity as a function of the superlattice periodicity A. No oscillations of the Rayleigh and Sezawa mode as a function of A could be observed within an error margin of +- 2% indicating that the localized electronic states do not contribute to the elastic constants.

We report on the observation of quantized surface spin waves in periodic arrays of magnetic Ni81Fe19 wires by means of Brillouin light scattering spectroscopy. At small wavevectors (q_1 = 0 - 0.9*100000 cm^-1 ) several discrete, dispersionless modes with a frequency splitting of up to 0.9 GHz were observed for the wavevector oriented perpendicular to the wires. From the frequencies of the modes and the wavevector interval, where each mode is observed, the modes are identified as dipole-exchange surface spin wave modes of the film with quantized wavevector values determined by the boundary conditions at the lateral edges of the wires. With increasing wavevector the separation of the modes becomes smaller, and the frequencies of the discrete modes converge to the dispersion of the dipole-exchange surface mode of a continuous film.

Static magnetic and spin wave properties of square lattices of permalloy micron dots with thicknesses of 500 Å and 1000 Å and with varying dot separations have been investigated. A magnetic fourfold anisotropy was found for the lattice with dot diameters of 1 micrometer and a dot separation of 0.1 micrometer. The anisotropy is attributed to an anisotropic dipole-dipole interaction between magnetically unsaturated parts of the dots. The anisotropy strength (order of 100000 erg/cm^3 ) decreases with increasing in-plane applied magnetic field.

Static magnetic and spin wave properties of square lattices of permalloy micron dots with thicknesses of 500 Å and 1000 Å and with varying dot separations have been investigated. The spin wave frequencies can be well described taking into account the demagnetization factor of each single dot. A magnetic four-fold anisotropy was found for the lattice with dot diameters of 1 micrometer and a dot separation of 0.1 micrometer. The anisotropy is attributed to an anisotropic dipole-dipole interaction between magnetically unsaturated parts of the dots. The anisotropy strength (order of 100000 erg/cm^3 ) decreases with increasing in-plane applied magnetic field.